Zenith Super-VII, large and beautiful 1924 6-Tube TRF Radio

From an Estate - 1924 Super-Zenith VII 6-Tube Battery Tuned Radio-Frequency Radio, restored

Introduction
"It Costs more - but it Does more" this is how Zenith introduced their Super-Zenith line of radios in 1924 (pict.30). Do these ads suggest, that polar explorer Commander Donald B. MacMillan took the radio on his latest (1925) arctic expedition? A 44 inch wide monster? No, it was a Zenith short-wave prototype, derived from the first real portable, the Zenith Companion, which his fellow explorer and Zenith founder Commander Eugene F. McDonald , had contributed, and which was an early precursor of the 40's Transoceanic line. The Super Zeniths ancestor was the famous 1923 model 4R, which however had only 4 tubes. They were priced from 240$ for model VII to 550$ for model X, translating into 3000-8000$ today, real luxury radios indeed. Floor model versions VIII, IX, and X all have the same radio as model VII. I only found one radio in similar good condition in the Western Historic Radio Museum in Virginia City, Nevada (ref.2), which is also listed at the radioattic archives. The radio is

•    Very rare
•    In extremely good and original condition
•    A milestone in radio history and radio technology

About my Radio
The radio came into a New Westminster Antique Store, where I bought it the next day. As most of these early Zeniths it had an issue with pot metal parts (see techies below). It was missing one knob. Otherwise it was in extremely good condition, never having seen anything like an attic. I restored it and am presently building a battery eliminator. It comes with a pair of Siemens Brothers 1939 headphones and/or an optional Farrand speaker. The radio is a true museum piece. Since there is no schematic available, I made one from tracing the set (high resolution copies available, copyright!). As a bonus I found a rare Raven MU-20 high-gain tube inside, which may stay with the radio. In a nutshell:

•  Excellent testing set of 5 Cunningham CX-301A tubes plus one Raven MU-20
•  No refinish of cabinet, has of course a few scratches
•  A very well conserved front plate
•  All original (except one hand-made (by Alan Douglas) replacement) swirled hard-rubber knobs
•  A very well conserved chassis with no rust, all audio transformers and HF coils ok, original wire resistors etc
•  3 original (but stabilized with liquid steel) pot metal tuning wheels
•  Pair of 1939 Siemens Brothers bakelite headphones

For the techies only:
The early Zenith sets have a well-known problem with pot metal parts. Whereas the tuning condensors in this set were excellent the tuning wheels had little fissures and were deformed. Some restorers had to manufacture replacements from aluminum. I could save them by stabilizing them with liquid steel. I had to give the left wheel a new rim, in order that it safely transports the dial string. The shafts of all knobs were swollen too and stuck. I had to drill them out and make new 1/4 inch shafts. Finally Alan Douglas, a very kind and nice member of the antiqueradios forum made me a diecast replacement knob for the missing one (upper left in photos), which I painted and sealed to resemble the others as much as possible. I am presently building a battery eliminator for all 4 batteries (+90V, +22.5V, +5V, -4.5V, -1.5V).

Here are the specifications:

Gallery: (watch descriptive legends under pictures, when mousing over thumbnails)

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